Many creative thinkers have been labelled as having Dyslexia, people like Steven Spielberg, Richard Branson even Thomas Edison and more recently, myself. As a Designer and Illustrator, I've always seen it as an advantage, as it gives me the ability to think outside the box. However, it can also be a massive roadblock, when coming to do what many see as simple, quick tasks like sending off an email or writing a birthday card, these things can hold me up for hours. However, what I've found over the years is that technology is fantastic and new applications are developing all the time to help solve these issues. I wonder what Thomas Edison would have thought of Audible?
Anyway, here are my 5 must-have apps for dyslexic entrepreneur's.
1. Grammarly
Ok, this one is a must. Even if you are not dyslexic, Grammarly is a fantastic program, that will fix your writing as you write, (i’m using it now) it goes far beyond the usual spell check and looks for several different types of errors, including word choice, dialectisms and voice misuse. Plans start from £22.87pm, but the free version is still very good, and integration into Chrome is super convenient for when you are not typing into the App directly, now if I am writing a Facebook post it will alert me to any double words or punctuation errors along with the dozens of spelling mistakes.
For me, it takes away a lot of the stress of typing.
www.grammarly.com
2. Dragon Anywhere
Dragon Anywhere has come along way from when I was at university. Back then you had to use a clunky headphone set and dictate directly into your computer. Today it comes as an iPhone app, and I don't know what I would do without it, Dragon Anywhere is, in my opinion, the best professional-grade dictation app ever. You talk, and it writes, what more could you want? Once you get your head around the spoken commands, it's a straightforward tool to use and makes your life so much easier.
If you particularly struggle with writing this is the app for you.
www.nuance.com/dragon/dragon-anywhere.html
3. Audible
Audiobooks, I don't need to explain more than that do I? Apart from to say, since I signed up I have listened to more books in two months than I have read in the past two years, and because it's so easy to swap books I find I am willing to try titles I would never have looked at in the past, things like 24 Assets by Daniel Priestly.
www.audible.co.uk
4. Coursera
I love learning, and Coursera provides unrestricted access to 100s of courses online and entirely for Free. They are all presented in video format which is easy to follow, and the mini-tests are set out as a short quiz to test your knowledge as you progress through each module. I've completed several Coursera courses including Conflict Resolution which was something I never thought I would find myself studying. The classes range from Arts and Humanities right through to Social sciences and Language learning, and everything in between, there's even a course in witchcraft. I can't recommend Coursera enough to anyone who wants to improve in any skill.
www.coursera.org
5. Millanote
Millanote is by far my favorite App for planning and collaborative work. It is a virtual board where you can visually layout your whole project. Then using the available tools, annotate, attach documents and create folders. You see everything in one place, and all team members can contribute in that space. Millanote is an excellent app for visual thinkers.
So those are my application recommendations for you all. I hope you can try them out, you don't have to be dyslexic to enjoy them, but if you are, you might just find they make your life a little bit easier.
And remember, Love Yourself, Love Others, Love the Planet.